No More Time Traveling

Summary: Rick and Morty get caught time-traveling and face a harsh sentence in time prison, an unforgiving, cruel, and violent place. They learn the hard way that time travel is not something which should be used lightly. Contains violence, swearing, sexual assault.

IMPORTANT NOTES: Hello. I want to warn you right away if you're reading this that this story is rough. It has its moments of levity, but it's pretty heavy overall. I think it's still good and worth reading if you can stomach the content... I mean, I wrote it and I like to think I'm pretty good at writing... But the subject matter is rough. I don't want anyone reading to be surprised or traumatized by this. I'm warning you in advance about what's in here. There is sexual violence in this, against a few characters. I am often a very descriptive writer, as you may tell by this overly descriptive introductory warning. I don't want anyone jumping into this expecting the characters to be saved at the last minute and get out of every rough situation totally unharmed, because that's now how it's gonna work this time. It wasn't easy to write and will probably be even less easy to read since you don't know where it's going and I always did... but it'll all be worth it in the end... I think.

Most of my stories contain violence of some sort, and lots include swearing and even some more minor sexual assault now and then, but the sexual assault in this one is the the most graphic and violent I've written to date. I tried to go back and edit it and make it less traumatizing (yes, I've traumatized myself a bit,) but it just doesn't read the same way if I tone it down. It's important to the story that the events Rick and Morty encounter not be all sunshine and rainbows. Every excruciating detail matters. I tried to keep everything tasteful while still telling the story the way it needs to be told. I don't want any scene to seem like gratuitous violence just for the sake of violence. It all serves the story, and anything especially explicit or graphic is only there so the reader can be drawn into where the characters are and get a better sense of their emotions, no matter how painful it might be to read.

Any characters besides Rick and Morty who appear in this story and any locations or objects that seem to be made-up and are not from the show are my creations. Rick and Morty are equally the main characters of this story. Lots of original characters play a part, but none are meant to take away attention from the two characters you came here for.

I finished writing this story several months ago and debated for a long while on whether or not to publish it. I've finally decided to let you guys see it. I think you can handle it. Just remember that it's going to be graphic in some places. It's not even the most graphic of stories I've seen on here... It's just very graphic for my own tastes and much more graphic than anything else I've written. And I'm changing the rating to M after the first chapter or so, which I've never felt compelled to do with any other stories I've written. I think it's earned that rating though... You'll see. So if you start reading this and can't seem to find it later by searching for it on the site, remember to broaden your search to include "M" rated stories.

Sorry for that huge, long, paranoid rant... I just really don't want anyone to start reading this and then get to the graphic parts and throw a fit or feel like I set them up to be traumatized based on how my other stories have differed from and very purposefully saved characters from this kind of thing. I've given you plenty of warning... so stay if you're willing to read potentially traumatizing things, and run away if you aren't. Don't blame me if this story makes you feel kinda sick and disturbed later... I mean, you can blame me... but don't be mad about it.

There will be 16 chapters. Buckle up:

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Chapter 1

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"Stop! Put your hands in the air!" A stern voice ordered as Morty struggled to keep up while running after his grandfather. They were on a foreign planet, being chased through a field - an activity which was unfortunately becoming sort of a routine for Morty and his grandfather. All Morty wanted was to just go home, finish his homework, and get a good night's sleep for once. Of course, as usual, sleeping through a whole night with all of his homework completed and neatly packed into his backpack seemed to be a dream that wasn't ever going to be a reality for him. Sleep and schoolwork were a thing of the past.

As they ran, Morty glanced nervously toward Rick, looking for guidance from his grandpa. The men chasing them had weapons and were asking them to stop running. Morty didn't know how long they should keep ignoring them. Getting caught didn't seem like the best result in this situation, but neither did getting shot. If they were outnumbered and out-gunned, maybe listening to these people wasn't such a bad idea. At some point, it would be smarter for them to surrender, before they were too dead to make that choice.

"Run, Morty!" Rick yelled to him when he noticed his grandson staring with concern in his direction. "We just gotta lose them long enough to get through a portal without them following!"

Morty gasped frantic breaths as he continued running on protesting legs. He didn't understand what he and his grandfather had done wrong this time. They broke rules on various planets all the damn time, but as far as Morty knew, they hadn't really done anything this time. This quest had actually been extremely tame and uneventful up until right now.

They didn't kill anyone or release any maximum security prisoners, hadn't smuggled anything onto or off of the planet, never tried to overthrow the government... Hadn't released any plagues... They hadn't even been stealing or selling anything illegal. All they'd done was travel back in time long enough to move Rick's vehicle, which he'd parked illegally in the original timeline. All they were doing was trying to avoid a parking ticket. They weren't doing anything illegal... They were preventing themselves from doing so. He couldn't understand why they were being pursued by people who seemed like cops when they hadn't done anything wrong.

"Who are they, Rick!?" Morty breathed as he tried to keep up. His feet hurt and his lungs burned. They'd been running too long, and Rick's stride was so much larger than his. He really had to push himself to not fall behind, and the cops were running just as fast as they were. They were making absolutely no progress distancing themselves from the men who pursued them. "Why are they chasing us? What did we do!?" Morty wondered.

Rick sighed as he kept running. "They're time police, Morty. Really strict motherfuckers. We absolutely do not wanna get caught by these guys, Morty. There's a reason I don't use time travel under most circumstances. There's a lot of people out there very opposed to it, particularly these New Xelnar fuckers."

With a frantic huff, Morty continued running. He knew it was a bad idea to travel through time for something as trivial as getting Rick out of a parking ticket, and he'd told Rick that too. Now they were on the run, and it didn't seem like they were going to get out of this very easily. Morty's overworked lungs burned. His legs ached, and his heart felt like it was about to beat out of his chest.

"Stop! Now!" One of the many people chasing them ordered again. "Cease running or we will be forced to open fire!"

Morty whimpered as he kept running. He didn't want to be shot, but he trusted that Rick would know when to give up and when to keep fighting. His grandfather had kept him alive this long, so he must have known what he was doing... Even though the threat of being shot would have made Morty stop for sure if he had been alone, he kept running.

A small shriek escaped Morty's lips as the sound of a laser gun being shot echoed through the field. He shrunk down and glanced toward Rick, who was still running. "Rick!" Morty cried out. He was beginning to doubt that his grandfather wasn't going to get them killed. "Maybe we should stop!"

"Keep running, Morty!" Rick called back. "You don't want to get arrested... Not here."

Morty shrunk down again and winced as he heard another gunshot. He wondered if the laser gunshots being fired toward him and Rick right now killed people as easily as regular bullets... Or maybe they killed people even more than bullets did. People survived regular gunshots all the time. Laser guns were still too new of a concept for Morty to know just how serious being shot by one could be. He figured he'd rather not find out the answers to all of his laser-gun questions firsthand though.

"Come on, Morty, keep up!" Rick grabbed his grandson's wrist and pulled him along.

"I can't run that fast!" Morty gasped as Rick practically dragged him along. "I'm gonna fall! Slow down!"

"Can't, Morty!" Rick called out as another laser shot through the air and evaporated a nearby shrub. "We gotta go faster. We're like five seconds from fucking dying, Morty."

Morty continued running even as his legs felt like jello and his lungs felt like they were on fire. He knew he couldn't keep up with this for much longer, but seeing how worried his grandfather seemed to be about being caught made him feel pretty concerned too. If Rick would risk being shot, getting arrested on this planet must have been a pretty big deal.

It wasn't until more of the men showed up in front of them, cornering them, that Rick finally skidded to a halt. Morty stopped alongside him, nearly tripping over his own feet as he desperately looked around and wondered how they were going to get out of this.

Morty breathed in and out loud, exhausted, painful breaths as he looked around himself. There were quite a few officers surrounding them, and they all held the same kind of laser guns which Morty now knew were at the very least capable of decimating innocent plants. All of their guns were pointed right at Morty and his grandfather.

"Hands behind your head." A stern voice ordered. "Lace your fingers. You're under arrest."

Morty's mouth dropped open in shock as he watched Rick roll his eyes, sigh, and put his hands behind his head in surrender. Did he not have a plan to get out of this? He was just going to give up? That was it?

With shaking hands, Morty complied as well, putting his hands on the back of his head and maintaining eye contact with Rick, hoping his grandpa would do something crazy to get them out of this at the last minute like he usually did. Rick didn't seem like he had a plan though. Morty frowned. Were they really going to get arrested this time? It seemed so...

"Lace your fingers together!" The voice behind Morty sounded pretty angry as a second officer pushed Rick to his knees and grabbed the old man's arms, bringing them down behind his back and cuffing his wrists together. "You! Lace your fingers together. Now!" The officer talking to Morty barked angrily.

"What?" Morty breathed out as he turned toward the voice. He could feel himself shaking as the cops yelled at him, and as he was unable to figure out what exactly they wanted him to do. He was surrendering, just like Rick. What more did they want? What had he not done that Rick had?

"Turn back around!" One of the cops screamed. "Lace your fingers together!"

Morty turned back to face away from the man and kept his hands on the back of his head, but he still wasn't sure what it meant to lace his fingers together. "I-I don't know what you want..." He stuttered.

"Get down on the ground!" The voice urged as Morty felt rough hands practically tackling him down to the hard, dirt ground.

Morty winced as he landed. Even though his brain told him to just hold still and let the man arrest him, the fear in his heart begged him to fight back as the officer on top of him jerked his arm violently behind his back and shoved him painfully against the dirt.

"Stop!" Morty pleaded as he tried to yank his arms out of the officer's grip. The guy was being too rough. Morty hadn't planned on fighting this. He was going to let them arrest him. He didn't feel he had a choice... But they were being so violent. It was instinctual for him to push back.

"Hold still." The officer demanded. "Stop resisting."

Morty cried out a pained wince as he wriggled one arm free and pressed it uselessly against the ground in an attempt to drag himself upward. "I'm not resisting! Get off me!" He felt himself shaking as the officer's hands shoved him harshly against the ground.

"Morty!" Morty glanced up toward Rick who was not fighting at all as the officers pulled him up to his feet and patted him down, taking everything out of his lab-coat's pockets. His hands were cuffed behind him and he seemed much more calm than he should have given the situation. "Don't fight them, Morty... Calm down." Rick advised.

Morty inhaled a few shaking breaths as he lay face-down against the dirt and stared at his grandfather. Calm down? That was easier said than done after this guy had just tackled him for no reason. Even so, he could tell struggling wasn't getting him anywhere. It was just making things worse.

He was just about ready to comply when he felt the officer place his hand heavily on the back of his head, pressing his cheek roughly against the earth as he snapped the cuff around one of his wrists. At the feeling of the hand pressing his head against the ground to hold him still, Morty began to panic again, and his panic increased even more when the cop shoved his knee painfully against the boy's back to hold him down even more securely.

There was pretty much no force needed to arrest him. Morty was generally very easy-going and gave up without a fight almost always. The more forceful these men became, the more scared Morty felt. Then he fought back and the officers became even more forceful. This was a never-ending chain.

"Let me up!" Morty screamed in a panicked, shaking voice as he thrashed his body as best as he could, wriggling his wrist out of the officer's grip and flinging his arms and legs out desperately. "I'm not resisting... I'll go with you. I won't fight... You're hurting me... Please!" Morty was almost crying now. Even when he'd held still, the officer hadn't become less rough.

"Get me the taser." The officer hovering over Morty ordered one of his friends.

Morty whimpered and began fighting even harder as he heard Rick pleading with the cops a few yards away. "No, no no no no... Don't hurt him... Y-you don't need to tase him... He's just scared. He's a dumb kid... Morty-" Rick drew Morty's attention. "Morty, don't fight... They won't hurt you. We're just getting arrested..."

Morty frowned, but at his grandfather's suggestion, forced himself to hold still besides his frantic, panting breaths. Getting arrested sounded like a pretty significant issue, and the cops had already proven that they didn't mind getting rough with very little reason behind it. He remained as still as he could manage as the officer snapped the other cuff onto his other wrist and dragged him up to his feet.

"You better learn to cooperate with the law, sonny. You're lucky you're just kid. I'd have tased you otherwise. Most officers won't be so forgiving." The cop growled as he dragged Morty toward where his grandfather stood. His hands around Morty's arms were gripping him so tightly, but Morty ignored it and held still. He hadn't meant to resist arrest. Things had just happened so fast. Everything was confusing and terrifying. It was instinctual to not just lay there while someone practically attacked him.

Before long, Rick and Morty were being loaded into the back of a sort of hover-craft vehicle. Their cuffs were locked to a bar behind a bench they were seated on, the vehicle's back door was closed, and they were driven away.

Still shaking slightly as he sat next to his grandfather, Morty inhaled a trembling breath. He was really scared, even more than usual. No matter how much trouble his grandfather got him into, they weren't usually arrested. Any other time, Rick's portal gun was pretty much their get out of jail free card, but the cops had taken it. They had no way out.

"What's going to happen?" Morty spoke in a small voice.

Rick shook his head. "We're goin' to intergalactic time prison, Morty. These people don't fuck around with their laws and take it very personally if you don't take their bullshit rules as seriously as they do. There's not really gonna be any way to argue out of this one, Morty. You're gonna want to stay close to me."

Morty gulped as he stared with wide eyes back at his grandfather. Rick didn't scare easily, so the fact that he'd blatantly told his grandson to stick close made Morty fear just how dangerous this place was going to be. Rick rarely showed any glimmer of protectiveness toward his grandson, so specifically warning him in advance about the danger ahead was alarming. "W-what's it like there?" He wondered, almost not wanting to know.

"Pretty much a free-for-all." Rick explained. "It's not like the prisons you see on tv where everyone gets their own cell and all that shit, Morty. The guards put a sort of bracelet thing on each prisoner - it fits snug so you can't take it off. It's like an ID thing - to keep track of who's who, but it's a control thing too. They can shock or drug you with it with the push of a button, Morty, and they don't usually waste time asking questions before they do it either. Beyond that, you just mingle with the other prisoners and hope no one wants to beat the shit out of you - because the guards generally won't stop them. Their little shock armbands aren't as good of a training technique as they like to think they are. Murderers are still gonna murder. Rapists are still gonna rape."

"Wh-" Morty started, but couldn't even articulate a response right away.

"If you were a rapist, would you let getting electrocuted one time keep you from raping, Morty?" Rick stared down at him and raised his eyebrow. "If you liked to murder people, would you let one tiny little shock keep you from following your murderous dreams?"

"I-" Morty shook his head slightly and shrugged. What kind of a question was that? "I don't know... I..."

"Exactly." Rick said back. "They'll shock other prisoners while they're kicking your ass, and that'll get them to stop in that moment, but it just makes 'em pissed off, so they come after you in a dark fucking corner the next time, with friends to back 'em up. The guards are a fucking joke."

Morty stared at his grandfather with his mouth hanging open in shock. "If... If they care so much about laws, why wouldn't they care if their prisoners beat each other up?" He wondered.

Rick shrugged. "Once you break their laws, they have a shit load of disdain for you. Sure, they have rules that the prisoners aren't supposed to fuck with each other, but no body really gives a fuck. Kinda funny really, that they put their fuckin' rules on a pedestal but they go right out the god-damned window whenever it's something none of the rule-enforcers give a shit about. That's the way these bureaucrat-types are, Morty. They stick to their rues like a fucking religion, but they don't really give a fuck about anyone. It's all about being able to say they followed the procedure, not about being anything less than a fucking sleaze when it comes to being a decent fucking person."

"We have to figure out how to escape, Rick... Wh- Do we not get a trial or something?" Morty gasped. If people in the prison weren't really required to be nice to each other, this was going to be a nightmare. Morty was small and knew from experience that he was an ideal target for bullies, and Rick had a way about him where he tended to piss people off a lot. That could be really dangerous in a prison, where other inmates had probably already formed some kind of hierarchy. "W-we just get sent to prison, Rick? No questions asked?" Morty stuttered.

"We get a trial, but we don't get to be present for it... And I can already tell you we're gonna be found guilty." Rick noted.

"This isn't fair!" Morty shook his head. "All we did was move your car!"

"Rules are rules, Morty." Rick shrugged. "Doesn't matter if it's bullshit. We're not in charge here."

"W-well, what are we gonna do, Rick?" Morty asked in a breathless voice. He was feeling more and more panicked with each passing moment. He'd really hoped he could avoid ever going to prison in his whole life, or at least hold off until adulthood.

"Don't freak out... I'll get us out of this mess, Morty." Rick promised as he leaned over toward his grandson and whispered softly. "You're just gonna have to give me some time... I have a plan, but I've gotta be careful executing it while being watched... So stick close to me, lay low, and wait."

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Review, please. :)